A former Methuen received a more than three-year prison sentence after he was sentenced this week in federal court in Boston for trafficking cocaine.
Twenty-seven-year-old Cesar Rodriguez-Sanquentin, a Dominican national, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton to 37 months in prison and four years of supervised release. On Feb. 12, Rodriguez-Sanquentin pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine and possession with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine.
In 2018, federal and state law enforcement began investigating a Brockton drug crew allegedly headed by Djuna Goncalves, described by officials as a violent Brockton-area drug dealer. During the investigation, agents identified different Boston-based drug trafficking organizations that allegedly supplied Goncalves and others with heroin, fentanyl, cocaine, crack cocaine and marijuana.
On Dec. 17, 2018, according to U.S. Attorney Andrew E. Lelling’s office, federal agents intercepted calls in which Rodriguez-Sanquentin promised to deliver a kilogram of cocaine to a customer. After Rodriguez-Sanquentin met with the customer, federal agents stopped and searched Rodriguez-Sanquentin’s car. Agents recovered a Kellogg’s Corn Flakes box that contained $33,611 in cash.
During May of last year, agents intercepted calls in which Rodriguez-Sanquentin agreed to supply cocaine to a Boston drug crew that had supplied Djuna Goncalves. Agents stopped Rodriguez-Sanquentin on the way to meet with the customer and recovered one kilogram of cocaine wrapped in a Christmas-themed gift bag from the engine compartment of Rodriguez-Sanquentin’s car.